


Of Child-Herding and Men

by Ocianne



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Cyan Garamonde - Freeform, Duane (Final Fantasy VI) - Freeform, Family Fluff, Found Family, Gau (Final Fantasy VI) - Freeform, Gen, Katarin (Final Fantasy VI) - Freeform, Mobliz children, Sabin Rene Figaro - Freeform, winter holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 01:37:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5438708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocianne/pseuds/Ocianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the day before solstice and all through Mobliz, the children are restless and the guests un-arrived. Post game Terra-centric fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Child-Herding and Men

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lirillith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/gifts).



“Mama! Ewan said a bad word!” Laila’s brown bob swirled around her chin from the force of her sudden turn, mirrored by the favorite skirt she always insisted on wearing even over her warm trousers.  
****

Ewan stuck out his tongue before retorting, “I did not! You did! And you smell like Triss’s dirty diapers!”

 _“Ewan,”_ Terra reprimanded sharply, before sighing at Ewan’s mulish expression. “Ewan, apologize for insulting your sister, or you’ll be on changing duty tomorrow as well as your usual day.”

Expression flashing to horror, Ewan muttered a quick “Sorry,” to the older girl, hand-me-down shoes scuffing lightly on the wood floor.

“And both of you will keep your speech polite, especially when our guests arrive. Understood?”

“Yes, mama,” was the chorus, which was better than nothing, at least.

Terra headed for the cave entrance, forcing back the door’s thin window-slide to peek out into the chill morning air with a hand shading her sensitive eyes from the winter sun. Before the light of ruin, Mobliz had been temperate. Now the coldest nights made it easiest to weather winter in the caves, even though the others had all pitched in to help build a sturdy wood-and-stone house for the rest of the year. At least they also had helped ensure the cave was ventilated properly, so the wood fire stove couldn’t smoke them out of house and home.

The village grounds in view were empty of even stray monsters, let alone travellers. Terra frowned in disappointment, though any friends would know to come to the cave. But Sabin and Cyan were due to arrive with Gau before the solstice tomorrow, per their letters, and Cyan had promised to bring the children gifts and teach them about the traditions of Doma’s winter festival. With the children growing like weeds and seeming to constantly increase their energy levels, any new distractions were a welcome thought.

She loved her children--all of them--and they would never stop being her family. No one could have warned her, even had there been someone to try, that family could be exhausting. The louder arguments and crying reached volumes that gave her headaches, even though the other adults seemed to remain unfazed—short of patience, but unfazed.

Muted footsteps warned of Locke’s approach moments before his arms wrapped around her waist from behind and lips pressed briefly against her temple. Terra leaned against his chest with a smile, savoring the warm touch as if this were the first time it was offered as opposed to the five hundredth. “No sign of them yet?” He smelled of soap and oiled leather and a hint of breakfast on his breath, a sure sign of his imminent departure to hunt more monsters for food and supplies.

Terra shook her head. “I hope they arrive before dark today. I’d come with you, but…”

“Duane and Katarin can’t play hosts _and_ manage all the kids, I know.”

"Hosts and child-wrangling, perhaps, but not also dinner."

Without the aid of magic for healing, Katarin had recovered slowly from childbirth. Luckily, Duane had cheerfully submitted to conscription as cook under her direction until Katarin could stand long enough to do the work herself again, as she preferred. Terra had even learned enough to cook a few simple meals on her own, though she could never hope to match the wonders Katarin managed from the wild-growing rice and wheat outside the village. Losing a slice of Katarin’s honeybread for dessert was as good a punishment for misbehavior as increased diaper-changing duty.

Locke chuckled, the sound resonating through them both as his arms tightened for a moment before letting go. “I’ll hurry back, then, to be sure dinner survives.”

Terra turned, stretching up to kiss Locke’s cheek. Beneath the other scents was the one that remained uniquely Locke, easy to separate with the sharpened senses that remained as her legacy. “Good--if you’re late, Sabin may eat it all and none will be left for you.”

“You wouldn’t!”

Locke’s feigned horror brought another smile to Terra’s lips, amused and teasing. “Try me and find out for yourself.” She stepped aside, out of the way of the door. “It will give you incentive not to get distracted by shiny things.”

(Terra once tracked down Locke a full day after he had been due home, only to find him in a recently uncovered cave—earthquakes and aftershocks were a fact of life in the new world, and sometimes revealed previously unexplored places—attempting to pry a green crystal out of a rocky wall.)

“No distractions, I promise.”

(Once the anger and fear for his safety had abated, she’d eventually been mollified by his wanting to bring the crystal home as a gift. She now wore the crystal as a pendant, and a more steadying promise.)

“Which direction are you going today?” Her hand strayed to stroke the crystal. She had only found him that terrifying time because of that question; she couldn’t have justified leaving the children on an aimless search, even for him. She’d never failed to ask it since.

Locke was long since past smiling wryly at the question, and answered unhesitatingly, “North, maybe northwest depending on the winds. I’ll find one of the coves and catch some fish to smoke. The storm last week will have washed new things ashore, too.” He grinned, familiar twinkle in his eye and rakish gleam in his smile. “I’ll bring home something valuable, just you watch me.”

“I’ve no doubt. Be careful anyway.” Despite knowing that any one of them who had faced Kefka was strong enough to handle most monsters in a single blow, sometimes the surviving behemoths roamed even this far east. (Never into the village unless they were weak and desperate, not after the one Terra had sent packing in feral fury when she’d been newly arrived to Mobliz and still possessed her esper heritage.) But while they didn’t have magic to augment their physical prowess any longer, they still could _dwarf_ a chocobo.

“As the lady comma--”

“Mamaaaaaa~!”

Locke and Terra winced in unison.

“I should--”

“I’d better--”

Chuckling, Locke stole a quick, final kiss before slipping out the door and Terra headed back to deal with the new crisis of the moment.  

\----

In the end, Locke returned home in the nick of time to rescue his meal from Sabin in suitably dramatic fashion, turning the tail end of dinner into a sort of improvised stage play that Gau joined in without hesitation. He’d grown significantly in the past six months, and his speech was smoother too. The children, unsurprisingly, loved the entire thing to bits, and even Duane and Katarin seemed amused as they excused themselves to put Triss to bed. Terra exchanged a glance with Cyan over the table full of mutual exasperation and fondness for their found families.

“Now, now, good sirs and gentle ladies,” Cyan intervened when Locke narrowly evaded both a friendly headlock from Sabin and Gau’s attempt to steal the plate by nearly spilling his dinner in Stella’s lap, “If the _children_ are done misbehaving, we grown-ups can make holly decorations in the common room and learn about what the solstice is.”

The table abruptly emptied of everyone under sixteen and Locke dropped into the chair next to Terra’s, grinning. “That went well.”

“Speak for yourself, young man,” she chided without any heat to it. “We adults have important things to do while you and Sabin clean the dishes.” She flashed a smile at Cyan as they stood together, ignoring the half-hearted protests from both young men.

“Important indeed,” Cyan returned gravely, giving his arm to escort her to where the visitors’ luggage included multiple baskets of collected plants. “Have you heard the legends of the solstice before?”

Terra shook her head, following along as eager to listen and craft with the holly as any of the children.

“Oh! A tragedy, lass, to be sure. We’ll get everyone all set up and then we’ll begin…”

Terra still ended up assisting more than making her own garland of holly and mistletoe, but listening to Cyan’s gravelly storytelling and the more distant banter and laughter of Locke and Sabin echoing across the caves, she would be the first to admit that she was well and truly happy.

To some the old world might be a ruin, but it was still good. That was all that mattered.

 ****  
  
  



End file.
